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The more time I spend in this forum the more I'll get the feeling that in OW we are trying to build a whole palace without any foundation. It's flipping from one side to the other only to find out that the other side isn't as sunny as everyone expected.

Some few players dominate this forum with subjective thoughts. But instead we should look at the game from an objective point of view.

Subjectivity is always bad. It's like a snapshot of a single moment of gameplay experience. Got ganked yesterday evening? It is easy to complain about, to get in rage, to let the whole feelings out in a single post. Others who had the same experience the past few days join in ... devs are getting uncertain about their game mechanics and decide to implement some drastic changes. But we should always remember one thing: who would spare a single ship when he sailed half an hour to an enemy trading post waiting there for another 15 mins with his mates, so who would spare a single ship when he had waited 45 mins doing nothing? I think: NOBODY. This is only a small example.

This is a game and someones downside is the other ones upside. Instead of constantly complaining about nitpickings we should lean back, let it settle down, look at the things from other perspective and then give constructive criticism -- we already have a good concept and now this concept needs finetuning. So I want to encourage the devs to believe in their game and not to change sides like a frog on a hot oven plate. The battle moments are great, just be as strict in finalizing OW concepts and you'll be successful. Believe me, it's true.

The more time I spend in this forum the more I'll get the feeling that in OW we are trying to build a whole palace without any foundation. It's flipping from one side to the other only to find out that the other side isn't as sunny as everyone expected.

Some few players dominate this forum with subjective thoughts. But instead we should look at the game from an objective point of view.

Subjectivity is always bad. It's like a snapshot of a single moment of gameplay experience. Got ganked yesterday evening? It is easy to complain about, to get in rage, to let the whole feelings out in a single post. Others who had the same experience the past few days join in ... devs are getting uncertain about their game mechanics and decide to implement some drastic changes. But we should always remember one thing: who would spare a single ship when he sailed half an hour to an enemy trading post waiting there for another 15 mins with his mates, so who would spare a single ship when he had waited 45 mins doing nothing? I think: NOBODY. This is only a small example.

This is a game and someones downside is the other ones upside. Instead of constantly complaining about nitpickings we should lean back, let it settle down, look at the things from other perspective and then give constructive criticism -- we already have a good concept and now this concept needs finetuning. So I want to encourage the devs to believe in their game and not to change sides like a frog on a hot oven plate. The battle moments are great, just be as strict in finalizing OW concepts and you'll be successful. Believe me, it's true.

i believe we all have to slow down a bit

and think every aspect of the game at due time

we have had so many play styles ,it's all messed up a bit in " the heads" of us

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Every game has the salty splatooners who act tough and refuse anyone else access to the game by way of changes. The problem is those few are a sizable vocal minority with the small pop we have now.

Every discussion we have regarding tuning, content and balancing turns into a shitposting contest because some don't want changes to the way they play currently, and others think the current state isn't working.

Instead of politely disagreeing and having civilized discussion about why this should change, why it shouldn't, what works ect ect. The coversation is degraded into some version of "GiT gOoOD bR0sKi" followed by "cOmE aT mE bRaH" and finished with "i have over 300 confirmed kills with my chasers ALONE, mate"

Even patch discussion isn't safe, mods should immediately remove and warn derailing post in these type of threads, that way if you want to explain your POV, you have do it from a gameplay objective stance, and not own personal vendettas.

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A movie director would say "Film making is not a democracy". If applied to game development, this turns into a double-edged sword.

I think NA has highly profited from listening to its users. There are many tweaks and mechanics one would have had a hard time coming up with at a desk. Albeit there is a tendency, that some overinvolved people have become too vocal. Sometimes I wish there would be more of a strong voice from the side of the developers to say "we listen to you, but we also protect the game from too much involvement".

People need rewards. That's why we eat sugar and fat or go bungee jumping. We love instant gratification. Right now, NA feels more like a long drawn out French arthouse movie, rather than a Hollywood blockbuster. One of the movies you sit through but not really give you instant gratification. Going on the forum however writing a hateful rant or a bad review on Steam does give you that gratification.

Solution? Open world multiplayer games will always give you a certain level of frustration, because they are more like real life. You can however stuff your players with rewards for everything. If people were awarded tons of gold and combat marks for letting themselves ganked, if the OW were littered with shiwrecks, the frustration would only hit half as hard and the incentive to keep playing would be doubled.

This is one of the aspects I think that are lacking at the moment: failing to recognize that NA is a game format, not a simulation of the real world.

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The more time I spend in this forum the more I'll get the feeling that in OW we are trying to build a whole palace without any foundation. It's flipping from one side to the other only to find out that the other side isn't as sunny as everyone expected.

Some few players dominate this forum with subjective thoughts. But instead we should look at the game from an objective point of view.

Subjectivity is always bad. It's like a snapshot of a single moment of gameplay experience. Got ganked yesterday evening? It is easy to complain about, to get in rage, to let the whole feelings out in a single post. Others who had the same experience the past few days join in ... devs are getting uncertain about their game mechanics and decide to implement some drastic changes. But we should always remember one thing: who would spare a single ship when he sailed half an hour to an enemy trading post waiting there for another 15 mins with his mates, so who would spare a single ship when he had waited 45 mins doing nothing? I think: NOBODY. This is only a small example.

This is a game and someones downside is the other ones upside. Instead of constantly complaining about nitpickings we should lean back, let it settle down, look at the things from other perspective and then give constructive criticism -- we already have a good concept and now this concept needs finetuning. So I want to encourage the devs to believe in their game and not to change sides like a frog on a hot oven plate. The battle moments are great, just be as strict in finalizing OW concepts and you'll be successful. Believe me, it's true.

A handfull of mods dictate how this game is shaped. Its not going to change. Most players have quit. I only check in rarely to see if they have learned thier mistakes and made the game fun again. Obviously so far they haven't.

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Instead of focusing on a patch that is in the first place for (3% of players)

On 15.4.2017 at 4:40 PM, admin said:

...

3) You are all exaggerating the importance of port battles for the general audience. From release with 120,000 copies sold only 2000-3000 thousands players participated in 1 port battle or more over the course of 2 years of testing.

....

They should ditch or turn off RvR till further developement and focus on content beside ships for the 97% of players.

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It seems to me there is no clear picture on what they want to do with this game. One week it is this the next week it is something "T" totally different.

I share that view.

Being old enough I played Sid Meier's Pirates on the Amiga for days on end. The graphics were abysmal, but the story content was good enough to keep me involved. I sort of wish that NA were going in that direction: the possibility to write your own great story.

4

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Naval Action is an historically based combat game, we get very beautiful and for the most part accurate ships, we then go out and try to sink them! It is I think a great concept, the major problems I think are that people are attracted by the 'romance' of the era, that many do not understand that Naval warfare by it's very nature is unlike wielding vast armies or the cut and thrust of aerial warfare, it was, is and always will be 99% plodding around and 1% action. It is not really adaptable for multiple player sandbox games like land based warfare games are. It is not I'm afraid wysiwyg.

It is not the fault of the devs, nor the players, Naval warfare is what it is, Now if missions and PVE were designed to lead to an end, Either PVP or RVR and PVP/RVR lead to a resettable end then it may be more attractive. There is a place for PVE/PVR/RVR in one place, what it needs is context and an historically based framework that is dynamic reacting to what the various groups actually achieve, it would I think open up co-operation between traders, crafters and fighting captains, between PVE/PVR/RVR. We all need to work together to make this successful, does that mean compromises? Yes but if it creates a great game rather than a good game then maybe it is worth the effort.

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... that many do not understand that Naval warfare by it's very nature is ... and always will be 99% plodding around and 1% action.

I agree, the reality of it all was very sober. And you haven't even mentioned the rigor discipline, the forced enlistment, the sicknesses, the slave ships, and so forth.

But what's so wrong with catering to the romance? That's what games are about, right? An idealized fantasy world. I have absolutely no problem with indulging in fantasies. It's fun, it's light, there are reasons why people dress up as Pirates at parties.

I mean you don't have to make it ridiculous, but some story content would do this game good.

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Being old enough I played Sid Meier's Pirates on the Amiga for days on end. The graphics were abysmal, but the story content was good enough to keep me involved. I sort of wish that NA were going in that direction: the possibility to write your own great story.

Spent many enjoyable hours with this great game. I also had hoped NA would have a great story line. I have spent hours trying to put Jon Williams "Privateers and Gentlemen, The King Over the Water and Decision at Djerba" into play using paper models and WizKids punchout plastic ships. I had hoped NA might set up story lines with historical, semi-historical or fantacy story lines, where you could join any nation, move up the ranks, then join another nation and do the same thing. Or be a pirate or privateer under a Letter of Marque. After a battle was completed the game would reset that battle. Trading and crafting would go on as usual, but could be involved in story lines as could raids on ports. Players would keep all earned gold, exp points, combat marks, but may or may not start over when changing colors. Entering into a story line would be more PvE, but could still sail OW PvP with all it's dangers and rewards. I don't know if any of this could be possible, but after a brief sail on Testbed (enjoyed the new ships and being able to test different wood combos) and fighting the same battles over and over again I will wait and watch for something better.

P.S. wouldn't it be great to keep Testbed where you could have all the ships available to test with all the wood combos to gain experience and performance data?

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They should ditch or turn off RvR till further developement and focus on content beside ships for the 97% of players.

I suspect most people would be pretty happy if they could just get a couple fairly even-strength small number frigate battles with their clannies per day. It really shouldn't be so hard to get that kind of content?

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They should focus on making the game more beginner friendly so we're not loosing so many new potential players. Then the open world needs attention, more well thought PvE contend leads to more PvP content. Don't know about RvR because i don't care.

Right now Naval Action feels like it's stuck in irons and don't know how to manual sail, but we all learned how to manual sail. So knock on wood.

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... that many do not understand that Naval warfare by it's very nature is ... and always will be 99% plodding around and 1% action.

I agree, the reality of it all was very sober. And you haven't even mentioned the rigor discipline, the forced enlistment, the sicknesses, the slave ships, and so forth.

But what's so wrong with catering to the romance? That's what games are about, right? An idealized fantasy world. I have absolutely no problem with indulging in fantasies. It's fun, it's light, there are reasons why people dress up as Pirates at parties.

I mean you don't have to make it ridiculous, but some story content would do this game good.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with catering to the romance, in a way it was a very romantic and graceful way of warfare, it was also bloody and cruel, but I think it also helps to understand how it really was too, puts it all into context.